HELSINKI, July 9 – Controversial South African athlete Caster Semenya will resume her running career on July 15 at a meeting in Finland, her Finnish agent Jukka Harkonen said on Thursday."She will begin at Lappeenranta in July. She is now free to run as a female athlete," Harkonen told AFP.
Semenya has not run since leaked test results claimed she was a hermaphrodite following her win at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin.
The 19-year-old South African 800m world champion was given the green light this week to run again after a review by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) of gender-verification tests.
By choosing the Finnish city, which is the capital of South Karelia about 30km from the Russian border and 150km east of Helsinki, those close to Semenya hope that she would be able to resume her career away from the media limelight.
"They (Semenya’s team) reckoned that Lappeenranta is a small competition but with a decent enough international level," said local athletics boss Jarmo Viskari.
